The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or a multifunction peripheral combining such devices.
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile or a multifunction peripheral combining such devices has been known as an apparatus for forming (printing) an image on a sheet of paper used as a sheet medium. These types of image forming apparatuses generally include a stacking unit that has a stacking surface portion. Discharged sheets of paper are stacked on the stacking surface portion.
The stacking surface portion must have a length that enables stacking of sheets of paper having maximum length in a direction in which the sheets of paper are discharged from a discharging portion so that these sheets can be stacked on the stacking surface portion. The above requirement is a reason causing an increase in the overall size of the image forming apparatus.
In this regard, a plurality of image forming apparatuses has been proposed that enables an increase in the surface area of a stacking surface portion to deal with large-size sheets of paper. One of such image forming apparatuses is configured to rotate a folded auxiliary tray. In this manner, the surface area of the stacking surface portion can be increased. Furthermore, one of such image forming apparatuses is configured so that a folded auxiliary tray is raised in operable connection with mounting of a sheet feeding cassette, when the sheet feeding cassette containing large-size sheets of paper is mounted in a main cabinet. In this manner, the surface area of a stacking surface portion can be increased.